Category Archives: Families

Convention is winding down and many people are preparing for the last day of sessions before heading home. After a busy three days of activities, most people are ready to skip out on sessions to sleep in or go to the airport to beat the afternoon madness.

However, the convention still offers lots of exciting and interesting sessions. Plus, it’s a great time to visit the bookstore to make your purchases. As the convention comes to a close, below are some sessions that may be interesting to see if you’re still wondering, “What session should I go to?”

How Do Psychologists with Privilege Respond to the Stigmatized Others?

CC 209A (50 minutes)

The session will focus on individual, cultural and contextual barriers and assets, as well as training implications for working with culturally stigmatized others.

9AM

Integrating Individual, Family and Systems- Focused Interventions: A Video Illustration

CC 101 (50 minutes)

The session will illustrate the interdependent nature of individual-, family- and systems-based interventions in a program focusing on family-based treatment of adolescent substance abuse and delinquency.

Taking a Stand? Sport Psychology, Media and GLBT Athletes in Sochi

CC 158 (1 hour, 50 minutes)

The session will focus on the experiences of GLBT athletes competing in the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.

Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Criminal Justice System

CC 209A (50 minutes)

The session will present on overview of ASD by a psychologist and a parent of a child with autism who is also a former judge.

10AM

Children’s Resilience in the Context of Military Deployment and Their Aftermath

CC 204C (1 hour, 50 minutes)

The session will discuss how scientific knowledge about resilience can provide the evidence base for programs to support and enhance the resilience of military-connected families.

11AM

Influence of Culture and Context on Family: School Partnerships

CC 209A (1 hour, 50 minutes)

The session will explore various influences of culture and context on the development and implementation of family-school partnerships.

12PM

Global Violence Toward Women: Interventions and Strategies for Change

CC 152A (1 hour, 50 minutes)

The session will explore global violence toward women through an examination of sexual assault and rape in Africa, domestic violence and international sex trafficking, emphasizing treatment methods and interventions.

Five people were wounded overnight in shootings on Chicago’s West and South sides, according to a report in this morning’s Chicago Tribune. It’s a headline that appears almost daily in my city, and the victims, all men age 16 to 32, are among the most disadvantaged in the city – and frankly, in the country. Perhaps more importantly, this violence, and the stress and trauma that it leads to, is taking a serious toll on the health of men and boys in poor, urban communities throughout our nation, according to presenters at a symposium today.

At the session, members of APA’s working group on health disparities in boys and men discussed reasons why this population and other underserved groups of men have some of the worst health outcomes in the country.

Working group chair Wizdom Hammond, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pointed to several psychosocial factors that contribute to these health disparities, including a need among men to endorse and demonstrate traditional traits of masculinity, including toughness, self-reliance, confidence and aggression.

“It’s likely that the strains and conflicts associated with trying to live up to this masculine ideal is at least partly responsible for producing the kinds of health disadvantages we’re seeing,” Hammond said.

The researchers explained that, compared to women, males are more likely to take health behavioral risks, delay preventive health screenings and care-seeking for health problems, minimize their physical and mental health symptoms and signs of distress and have higher rates of substance abuse. These behaviors are even more widespread among men of low socioeconomic status, those who are ethnic and racial minorities, those who are gay or bisexual, and those who have been incarcerated.

Particularly when it comes to mental health, men and boys are socialized very early not to talk about their emotions around traumatic experiences, said presenter Waldo Johnson, PhD, of the University of Chicago.

“Therefore, they tend to suffer in silence,” he said.

The group is now finalizing an evidence-based report and a series of best practices and recommendations on the topic, for dissemination to psychologists and other health providers. One thing is clear, Johnson said:

“Any prevention or treatment program for this population must account for the unique circumstances of men and boys.”

If you missed some of your favorite presenters at convention this year — stay tuned. You may be able to hear them on APA’s award-winning monthly podcast series, “Speaking of Psychology.”

As host of this podcast, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with some of the top psychological thinkers during this convention. Tucked away in a small, window-less room with a microphone and a computer, we are discussing a wide range of psychology topics, including virtual reality therapy and parenting.

The discussions are much more intimate than what some of these presenters face in a large convention hall or meeting room. As a result, I’m able to get at what makes their work interesting to a general audience, which is the goal of our podcast. Some of our guests are funny, some have a more personal mission, but all are eager to make psychology exciting and accessible to the general public. Be sure to listen to some of our past episodes — don’t worry, they’re not too long — and you’ll hear what I mean. (The episodes I’m taping at convention will be released in the coming months.) The conversations appear on iTunes and on our website. You can also subscribe to the podcast and be notified when each new episode is posted.

College students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are much more likely to experience depression and anxiety than students without ADHD, according to preliminary findings from the first year of a five-year NIMH funded longitudinal study, presented this morning at APA’s Annual Convention.

Researchers examined data from more than 450 college freshman with and without ADHD at three universities and found that:

Students with ADHD report much higher levels of depression and anxiety — near 30 percent — compared with students without the disorder, whose numbers are closer to 5 percent for depression and anxiety.

Those with ADHD are also more likely to have lower grade-point averages than the comparison group, perhaps due to poorer organizational skills and fewer academic coping strategies.

Students with ADHD were much more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, including having multiple sexual partners and unprotected sexual intercourse.

With an increasing number of students with ADHD attending college, addressing these disparities isn’t just a challenge for the nation’s higher education system – it’s a psychosocial problem with major public health ramifications, said Arthur Anastopoulos, PhD, the study’s lead investigator and a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

“I don’t think getting extra time on tests or doling out stimulant prescriptions is going to fix this,” Anastopoulous said. “We have to get the message out to parents that they need to start actively preparing their high school children to take more ownership of the disorder and the responsibilities that they will be faced with in college.”